Gaara and Hinata's mission
by Ranfan
Summary: What happens when Hinata is sent into the forest of death with Gaara? Flaming marshmallows that's what! You can decide if it's GaaHina or not. Oneshot


**Ranfan: Hey guys. This is just a oneshot fic about Gaara and Hinata**. **You can look at it as a pairing if you want I don't mind. This is after Gaara has gotten over his urge to kill everyone. All the characters of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**" " these are spoken words.**

**' ' these are thoughts.  
**

"Okay. So who'll it be?"

Iruka stood there expectantly in front of two teams of genin. The only sand team and team 8. They had been assigned a mission for one member from each team to venture into the forest of death and retrieve a rare herb.

Whispers ran through each team as they tried to decide who'll go in.

"How about you Shino?" asked Kiba.

"It'll be hard for my bugs to locate a specific herb."

"Now I wished I'd payed attention in class..." Kiba muttered "Looks like it's you Hinata."

"W-What? Me?" she said weakly.

"It'll be a cinch for you. You know your herbs and you have your Byakugan" Kiba smiled encouragingly.

"A-Alright. I-I'll try my best!"

"Okay. So it's Hinata from team 8, and who from this team? Temari? Kankuro?"

"Gaara."

"What?"

"Gaara wants to go, and he's the one less likely to get hurt" explained Temari.

"I guess it won't be a cinch..." mumbled Kiba.

Hinata's determination suddenly diminished as she started shaking.

_'A whole day in the forest of death with him?' _

"Alright it's decided. You have 24 hours to complete this mission and seeing as we can't control what goes on inside, you're advised to do whatever you have to, to remain alive" said Iruka.

As he walked past Hinata he put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly.

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That day Hinata found herself alone in the forest of death. There was no sign of Gaara, the herb or any of the forests' inhabitants.

"Okay Hinata. No Shino or Kiba to save you this time" she said quietly "I have to be strong no matter what happens."

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Later that night Hinata was exhausted from using her Byakugan too much. Unfortunately she hadn't been able to find anything.

A red flicker suddenly caught her attention. Curiosity getting the better of her she made her way closer.

She stopped just in time to see Gaara sitting near a campfire. She held her breath and started to back away when he called out.

"Come out girl."

Hinata had to stifle a gasp as she froze.

"I said come out. You don't want me to come and find you, do you?"

That was the last thing she wanted. Reluctantly, Hinata came out from her hiding place and stepped into the glow of the fire. She was an easy target, being only 5 feet away from where Gaara was sitting. Athough she was shaking her body was tense, and ready to run.

Gaara examined her for a minute then said:

"You seem cold, sit down."

Hinata did as she was told and sat down.

_'What am I going to do? I'm going to die without telling Naruto that I like him! And I wanted to tell Neji that I'm sorry-'_

"Do you have any food?"

"W-What?"

"I didn't expect the mission to take this long, so I didn't bring food. Did you?"

His piercing eyes were focused intently on hers as she nodded feebly. Her shaking hand reached for the inner pocket of her hoody and pulled out a bag of marshmallows.

Gaara took them from her and tore it open as Hinata began to hyperventilate.

_'Oh my God. What would have happened if I didn't have any food with me? Would he have killed then eaten me?!'_

"Here."

Hinata looked across to see a flaming white cube inches from her face.

_'Oh my God! He's trying to kill me with a flaming marshmallow!'_

"It caught on fire by accident. Just blow it out."

"R-Right."

After recovering she blew it out then bit a chunk out of it. The inside melted in her mouth and she was suddenly aware of how tired she was. Her head lolled then her whole body fell forward in the path of the fire.

At the last moment a hand flashed out and grabbed her hood, pulling her back. Hinata then lay safely on the ground beside the fire, under Gaara's watchful eyes.

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The morning after, Hinata woke with a start. She looked around wildly but the fire had been stamped out, half a bag of marshmallows at her side and Gaara was no where to be found.

Hinata looked to the sun and saw it was almost mid-day. Herb or no herb, she had to make it back to the entrance or assumed dead.

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At the entrance Kiba, Shino and Iruka were all waiting for her. The sand team, including Gaara were a little way off. As Hinataneared, Iruka opened the gate and she was greeted with a spine-crushing hug from Kiba.

"Hinata we were so worried about you being alone in there with that freak" Kiba slyly glanced at Gaara "You're not hurt are you?"

Hinata shook her head sadly.

"What's wrong?" asked Kiba.

"I failed. I wasn't able to find the herb."

"Don't worry. Gaara wasn't able to find it either."

"Really?" she glanced over at him.

"You did your best Hinata and that's all we can ask for" Iruka smiled.

Hinata smiled in return but couldn't help feel that she'd failed.

"What's this?"

Shino was looking at something inside her hood. He pulled it out to show everyone. It was a plant. A small plant with cloud shaped leaves.

"That's it! That's the herb!" exclaimed Kiba.

"But how did it-?"

She looked over and caught Gaara's eye. A small smile flashed across his face, then he turned and walked away. Hinata smiled to herself as a new impression of Gaara formed in her mind.

"Thank you Gaara."

**Ranfan: So what do you think? Hate it? Love it? Please review!**


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